Author/Uploaded by Margot Kahn
Table of Contents Cover Title Page Contents Introduction When I Imagine the Life I Want Appetite Sex in the Suburbs Pleasure Archive: Notes on Polyamory, History, and Desire An SUV Named Desire Being a Dad Means Respecting the Yard See What You Do to Me Desire in the City of Subdued Excitement The Good Girl Bodies of...
Table of Contents Cover Title Page Contents Introduction When I Imagine the Life I Want Appetite Sex in the Suburbs Pleasure Archive: Notes on Polyamory, History, and Desire An SUV Named Desire Being a Dad Means Respecting the Yard See What You Do to Me Desire in the City of Subdued Excitement The Good Girl Bodies of Water Last Supper How I Got Over There Is a Name for This My Dick, Your Dick, Our Dick The Broken Country Allergic Halls of Air Made of Clay Splitting the World Open The Thief Addiction Where It Starts, Where It Ends Control Freak On Not Getting What I Wanted From Woe to Wonder Leaving the Palace Approximations Teach Me How to Want to Live Notes Toward a History of Desire Coming to Be Song of Songs Manifest Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby Acknowledgments About the Contributors Permissions Copyright Guide Cover Introduction Contents Page List i ii iii v vi vii ix x xi xii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 ALSO EDITED BY MARGOT KAHN AND KELLY McMASTERS This Is the Place: Women Writing About Home Copyright © 2023 by Margot Kahn and Kelly McMasters All rights reserved under domestic and international copyright. Outside of fair use (such as quoting within a book review), no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. For permissions, please contact the publisher. Please see permissions on page 335 for individual credits. ISBN: 978-1-64622-011-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2022944797 Cover design by Nicole Caputo Book design by Laura Berry Catapult New York, NY books.catapult.co I am free to be sung to; I am free to sing. This woman can cross any line. —JOY HARJO, “ALIVE” Contents Introduction When I Imagine the Life I Want LARISSA PHAM Appetite MICHELLE WILDGEN Sex in the Suburbs ANGELA CARDINALE Pleasure Archive: Notes on Polyamory, History, and Desire KEYANAH B. NURSE, PHD An SUV Named Desire JENNIFER DE LEON Being a Dad Means Respecting the Yard KRISTEN ARNETT See What You Do to Me TARASHEA NESBIT Desire in the City of Subdued Excitement RENA PRIEST The Good Girl SONORA JHA Bodies of Water KAREN RUSSELL Last Supper TORREY PETERS How I Got Over AMANDA PETRUSICH There Is a Name for This JOANNA RAKOFF My Dick, Your Dick, Our Dick AMY GALL The Broken Country MOLLY McCULLY BROWN Allergic TARA CONKLIN Halls of Air LAURA JOYCE-HUBBARD Made of Clay ABIGAIL Introduction DESIRE IS NOT NEW, BUT OUR UNDERSTANDING OF the experience and the way we’re willing to reveal it is constantly shifting. In “A Song in the Front Yard,” Gwendolyn Brooks writes: I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life. I want a peek at the back Where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows. A girl gets sick of a rose. Most of us can identify in our bodies a memory of that first spark of reckless desire, of wanting the rough and the untended, of feeling like that hungry weed. As we age, of course, our desires layer and change, but the base experience of want remains the same. Desire is messy. And raw. And irrational.